Fanboy Rampage: Dan Slott Vs. Bleeding Cool

Usually Dan Slott just gets into debates with the Bleeding Cool message boards. You know the folk who think that he should really stop writing Spider-Man because everyone hates it, despite it constantly putting on sales.

But yesterday, he decided to take that to Twitter… and Twitlonger. Warning, there are spoilers for Batman #28.

Dear @richjohnston & @bleedingcool, please stop posting spoilers– ESPECIALLY the last pages– of books on the day they come out.

It is a terrible practice and it makes it harder and harder for storytellers to deliver ANY kind of surprises to the readers.

If you think ANYONE who worked on BATMAN #28 appreciated what you did last Wednesday, you’re 100% wrong. Period. End stop.

There was absolutely NO need to post that full page scan of the end of their book– before everyone in the U.S. market even had a CHANCE to go to a store and pick up a physical copy.

It doesn’t matter how many spoiler warnings you put up on your site. You’re disseminating that image to your readers– who will then go out and spread it around the web. You know that.

It’s just bad form. Please stop.

If you care about this industry, these characters, and the people who make these comics– let storytellers do their job and TRY to deliver surprises once in a while DURING the stories they’re telling.

I don’t care if other sites get these images out. Or if there are other places on the web where people can find them first. WHO CARES? Your site gets traffic anyway. You don’t need the extra clicks that badly.

Please show some restraint. Please exhibit courtesy towards both the people who make the comics and the readers who don’t wish to see things spoiled ahead of time. At least please wait till the people who have 9-to-5 jobs have a chance to go to their comic shops after work, and read the issues themselves before you go spoiling any of the endings.

Please.

Now, Dan Slott was wrong about the circumstances in which that post came about and made some erroneous assumptions, but to be fair, he wasn’t in a position to know any different.

But here’s the thing. The post in question reflected a comic book that had been published and picked up from a comic store, in the UK. It reflected a genuine news story, a character appearing who had been repeatedly denied existence by the publisher, removed from appearance after appearance and declared toxic. The reappearance of the character was a genuine news story and deserved reporting. But should Bleeding Cool have waited? The story had been published for several hours on ComXology at the point. Newsarama waited until 11am ET (8am PT) to run the story, after New York stores were open (but before California stores were).

So, the Twitter conversation was set. Here are some highlights.

@DanSlott Dan, you are making some incorrect assumptions. I have emailed you.

So no conclusion there then. The big question of course is this… which between me and Dan Slott, is starting to sound more and more like John Byrne?

And you’re the actual readers of Bleeding Cool. What do you think?

Fanboy Rampage was a blog by Graeme McMillan dedicated to the funniest, most ludicrous and most inappropriate comic book back-and-forths online. McMillan has moved on now, becoming a proper journalist for the likes of Newsarama and Spinoff but he gave permission to Bleeding Cool to revive his great creation. Feel free to contribute your own spots of online excess.